Wait... January is HOW many months away from May?

Okay, 2014. Here we are.

I am panicking.

I'm going to make a list of all the wedding things we still need to do and take a picture of it so you can enjoy my panic as well.

In addition to all this, I need to lose about 30 pounds (okay, 15), get my dress altered (both of those in the next two weeks, definitely not happening, which leaves me with the option of being unhappy with how heavy I am on my wedding day in a dress that fits, or getting back to a weight I'm happy with and looking crummy in a dress that doesn't fit), clean the bathroom, do the laundry that has been building up for the past month, remember to not eat junk or eat after 7 pm, come up with some goals for work and accomplish the heck out of them, learn to can things, wash Beorn's gross favorite toy, and somehow chill the eff out.

So I'll be over here, breathing into a paper bag while I send yet another email to one of the dozen vendor reps who hasn't replied to me all week.

Seriously. If this wedding is anywhere near not-a-disaster, it'll be like that time the Millennium Falcon showed up to catch Luke under cloud city. A small, beautifully-lit miracle.

Things You Learn When You Get Your First Dog

Things I didn't know before I had a dog:

1) Puppies really do love EVERYTHING. They love everything and make any bad day into a good one when they greet you at the door. Literally, puppies love everything. They lick everything they like, and they lick everything.

2) You can be ridiculously proud of a dog that you've trained. The first time Beorn did "high-five," after I taught him, I nearly cried with pride.

3) Dog farts. I'd heard about dog farts before, and even experienced them, but the first time you give your dog a chicken treat that doesn't quiiiiiite agree with his tummy before you put him in his crate and then go to pub trivia for a couple hours... oh goodness, when you get back, you'd better give that room at least an hour to air out. God help you if it's 4 degrees where you live and you are faced with the choice of opening a window and freezing or leaving it closed and hoping the smell dissipates before you die of dog fart inhalation.

4) Our home is in desperate need of protection. Evidently, we live in a terrifying neighborhood, full of hipsters, hipsters with kids, old people, hipsters with old people, and wind. For the record, we never asked for a guard dog. We never trained him to be a guard dog. Nonetheless, according to Beorn, other dogs he sees across the street (thank goodness we live on the second floor and he doesn't have a great view) are a Very Serious Threat. Anyone invited over who steps onto the porch is a serious problem. The nefarious mail-person is a brigand. The downstairs neighbors are seriously suspicious until they get into the house, and then they're our friends. The wind is a phantom poltergeist-monster that will throw things at us all unless Beorn barks it down. Our Christmas Caga Tio is particularly troublesome, and Beorn will bark at it until you show him that the caga tio is literally a log with a face on it. Sometimes he does this adorable under-his-breath-bark, but he's clearly alerting us that SOMETHING IS EXTREMELY AMISS IN OUR ABODE and HE MUST PROTECT THE DEN.

5) Tennis balls are the GREATEST THING EVER INVENTED. Beorn has figured out that if he puts his paw on a tennis ball on our hardwood floor hard enough, the ball will squirt itself off into a random direction where he can chase it. He might be a genius-dog who can make his own fun.

6) Good lord, bacon. BACON! Are you making bacon?! Because if you are, Beorn is losing his mind. He's sitting politely next to you, or perhaps lying on the floor across the kitchen, but he. Is. Losing. His. Mind.

7) Dogs on the television are just as much a threat as those dogs across the street. Potentially lethal. Whatever you do, dogs on TV, don't bark. Or make any noise at all.

8) Maybe this is a fraction of what parents feel. Honestly, when Beorn learns something new that we've been trying to teach him, it's totally ridiculous how proud we are.

9) So this is what it's like to have someone Eager To Please... you. If you give Beorn a toy, he wants you to throw it. If you don't, he will bring it to you and leave it at your feet. If you don't throw it, he will sit, thinking that you want him to do that. If you still don't throw it, he will lie down, thinking you want him to lie down. He will stay there, down, staring at you, wagging his tail, until you acknowledge him and throw Mr. Dinosaur. He tries very hard.

10) If you have a bad day, a dog greeting you at the door for five minutes with a wagging tail and ridiculous grin will make your day infinitely better.

11) It's completely possible to communicate with a dog without words. If Beorn is bummed, we can tell. If he's tired, we can tell. If he's got to go, we can tell. If he's agitated, we can tell. He can tell the same about us. With the possible exception of got to go, which... maybe he can? He wants you to be happy, and seems to think that putting his head and paws on your knees will do that (usually he is right).

This is how Beorn greeted me on New Year's morning. Who could resist?

He's looking at me like that right now, wanting me to throw this felt candy cane stick I got him for Christmas.

He also just farted again.

Oh, puppy.

Adios, 2013 and Another Attempt

Well, here we are again.

I've once again told myself (and anyone who might read this) that I was going to update the blog more often, and once again, it has been two months since I posted a single thing. Of course I've been busy. It's the holidays, I've had a lot of knitting to do, we're getting a foot of snow every other day, my puppy won't stop doing adorable things that require photographing (or scolding), I'm planning a wedding...

A fraction of the aforementioned knitting.

Festive apartment!

Curious puppy!

In short, a perfectly ordinary winter.

And while those are all valid excuses and I could offer them up and keep offering them up, I'd rather make time to reflect and actually put together a blog post a couple times a week.

My friend Liz just moved here from South Carolina, and has started a blog devoted to her adventures in Milwaukee. She has an incredible list of very Milwaukee things to do during 2014, and I can't wait to see what happens. Not only does this inspire me to get out more and explore our city together, but it's also reminded me the reasons I started blogging in the first place and how much I enjoyed it. There are a number of reasons - remembering things, improving as a writer, having adventures worth writing about on the internet... so I'm going to try again, again.

2014 will undoubtedly be a year full of adventures. Adventures worth of documentation. Things will happen I won't want to forget. One of my best friends just moved into a house about three blocks from me (YAY!), I get to marry the best person in the whole wide world, I'mgoingtotryrunninganothermarathonsshhdon'ttellanyone, I'm going to attempt to learn how to can things and actually be a decent cook, our puppy is turning the big O-N-E... and who knows what adventures are in store? No doubt, there will be unexpected excursions and I'll probably fail at a few things (hopefully spectacularly - if you're going to fail, do it with gusto), but I'll try to keep track of it all here, and that will help me remember to keep upbeat and find the awesome even when things don't go as planned.

Here's to a happy New Year!

Volunteering For Stuff You Love

A few months ago, I realized a very silly thing. Though I have been a distance runner since approximately 2007 (six years! Woah), I have never volunteered at a race event.

So I signed up to volunteer at the finish line of my first marathon, the marathon I ran last year, the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon. (AKA... The best marathon. My opinion may be biased.) I received my volunteer placement email early last week and learned I would be working the gear bag pick up area, and if I could come an hour early, they could really use some help yesterday morning.

Every person working gear bag pick up showed up an hour early, coffee in hand and ready to throw some gear bags.

Everyone working gear bag pick up was either a runner or cared very much for someone who is a runner.

It took about an hour to unload the truck, and another 45 minutes to organize the bags (some of which were heavy - I learned later a lot of people pack their own chocolate milk and Gatorade and sandwiches and beer and things for the end of the race - seriously?), and no one complained for one second.

The excitement in the air crackled between us as we tossed bags in order and laughed giddily when we realized we couldn't count. RACE DAY!! Who knew race day was so exciting even when you're not running?

I met a lot of really amazing fellow volunteers, most of whom were fellow marathoners who volunteer for stuff like this because they really, really love running and runners. And of course, because runners talk a lot about running even to people who are not at all interested in running, we talked allllllll about running all morning. We got a little somber when we realized what the police dog was sniffing for amongst our gear bags. Turns out the officer was a runner, too.

And when the runners started coming to the finish line, we cheered. We said congratulations to every single person and I got to make a big fuss whenever I found out it was someone's first marathon, or they had a PR that morning, or they thought they were going to die at mile 18 but pressed on because a child gave them strawberries, or because they were crying and couldn't talk. Everyone thanked us, some people more than once.

No, no no no no no, runners. Thank YOU for running. Thank you for letting me be part of your big ass deal day. It was, truly and honestly, an honor to be even a small part of your marathon experience. I hope your day was as awesome as mine.

So... I highly recommend volunteering for something you love. You probably already do that, because a lot of people have more sense than I do. I know that next year if I'm not running a marathon, I'll certainly be there at the finish line to make a big deal out of everyone, because I love the Milwaukee running community. It's amazingly supportive of everyone - fast, slow, experienced, first-timer, big, small, young, old... you love running, I love running, let's celebrate.

Last weekend The Fiance and I did a canoe race! It was almost an accident - I was searching for duathlons, and found a canoe-run-canoe race in our beautiful state capital.

There were many, many canoes.

Rocky and Bullwinkle started next to us!

It ended at a big party with free beer and food from the Essenhaus!

And we got to portage up to the state capital building. Pretty great day.

I love lazy Sundays.

This has been my day:

My fiance and I got a "new" canoe! He patched it, and we'll take it out later tonight. Just to make sure it works. Just to check.

We dog-sat this weekend for our downstairs neighbors!

I spent the morning on my front deck with Beorn, a Bloody Mary, my garden, and a good book.

I discovered our first cucumber!

And our first pea!

And our second pea!

And some tomatoes!

...and I think that about sums it up.

Oh, right. I have an amazing camera.

A bad thing happened in 2008.

I dropped my Nikon D40 lens-down on a mountain in Ireland.

Yeah.

It hasn't been the same since. The main problem (perhaps the ONLY problem) is that it does not autofocus anymore. This is a problem because I have terrible eyesight and when I use a manual focus lens, things come out less awesome than I would like.

A few months ago, I got an iPod touch, which, essentially, is the same as an iPhone but I can't make calls on it (which... fine. I flat-out refuse to pay for a data plan, so... sorry, iPhone). Now, the iPod/iPhone has a pretty great camera. Unfortunately, I was lulled into what I will call an Instagram stupor and forgot that my Nikon is REALLY a good camera. It's not a great camera, it was the lowest-end DSLR I could get in 2006 when I bought it, but it's better than I need.

I remembered today, and took a few photos at the dog park with Beorn, after which I uploaded those and some other random photos I'd taken in the past few months.

I love this camera, so much. It captures colors beautifully. It's hard to take a really bad photo with it. I just wish autofocus DSLR lenses didn't cost so much. :/ But these are still pretty, despite the not-quite-perfect focus, right?